Prince Harry undoubtedly went all out for his wife Meghan Markle’s 43rd birthday celebration on Sunday. Despite stepping back from royal duties, the Duke of Sussex reminisced about a special memory involving his father, King Charles, in his memoir, “Spare.”
In the book, Prince Harry, who will turn 40 next month, shared how King Charles has a close bond with Meghan and highlighted a special connection between her birthdate and his “favourite person” – Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.
“Towards the end of summer 2018, we visited Scotland, the Castle of Mey, to spend a few days with Pa,” Harry wrote. “The bond between Meg and Pa, always strong, grew even stronger during that weekend. One night, over pre-dinner cocktails with Fred Astaire playing in the background, we discovered that Meg shared a birthdate with Pa’s favorite person: Gan-Gan. August 4.”
The revelation prompted a sweet response from King Charles, who had walked Meghan down the aisle just weeks earlier at her 2018 wedding to Prince Harry.
“‘Amazing,’ Pa said with a smile,” Harry added. “At the memory of Gan-Gan, and the link between her and my bride, he suddenly became buoyant, telling stories I’d never heard, essentially performing, showing off for Meg.”
Meghan’s birthday has always been special for the couple. In 2017, a year into their relationship, Prince Harry took his then-girlfriend to Botswana for her 36th birthday. Their trip preceded their engagement, with Harry proposing in the garden at Nottingham Cottage, his former home at Kensington Palace.
Nearly two years after their wedding, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped back as senior royals in 2020 and moved permanently to the US with their son, Prince Archie. They bought their first home in Montecito in July 2020 and welcomed their second child, Princess Lilibet, at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital a year later.
On Sunday, Prince Harry and Meghan appeared in a pre-recorded interview for the US program CBS Sunday Morning, discussing a new initiative to support parents of children affected by online harm. The televised interview, broadcast on Meghan’s 43rd birthday, marked the launch of The Parents’ Network, associated with the couple’s charitable Archewell Foundation.
The initiative aims to provide parents with a safe, free-to-access support network to help those whose children have been harmed by social media, available to parents in the US, UK, and Canada.
Meghan spoke about their children, Archie and Lilibet, saying, “Our kids are young, they are three and five, they’re amazing, but all you want to do as parents is protect them. And so, as we see what’s happening in the online space, we know that there’s a lot of work to be done there, and we’re just happy to be able to be a part of change for good.”
